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Friday, June 13, 2014

King Henrik and the Rangers look to keep the LA KIngs from their Stanley Cup throne

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Whatever it is that the coach says in that Neflix film, it seems to work.

New York Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault made mention of that now viral moment of television commercial fame. Tempting reporters with the prospect of a reproduction, then dashing from the press conference prior to game four, no doubt to deliver his Netflix night at the Improv act in the Ranger dressing room.

The speech it appears worked quite well, New York finally finding a reward for hard work assisted mightily by their goaltender, with Henrik Lundqvist having the kind of night that Rangers fans were waiting for in this final round.

Once again, when elimination was on the horizon, King Henrik rose to the occasion shutting down the Kings, lifting New York to the 2-1 victory and sending everyone packing for Los Angeles and game five tonight.

Wednesday's success was all on King Henrik, as Lundqvist faced 41shots over the course of the three periods, a good many of them in the frantic final twenty minutes of play as the Kings put on the pressure to try and make a sweep of things.

As they have in all four games, Los Angeles has seem to grow more confident with every shift, game four was no exception and if not for the work of Lundqvist, Lord Stanley's mug would no doubt be around a pool somewhere in Hollywood by now.

The brooms however were destined to be put away, the Rangers live on and should they make the most of their Friday night on the west coast, they'll be back in the Gardens for Monday night, with the Stanley Cup then very much a riveting series.

But first things first, the task at hand is to play Game five period, by period, looking to get out to an early lead and then hold off what will be a tireless attack from an LA team that would clearly love to reward their fans with the visual of the Stanley Cup skated around Staples Centre.

For coach Vigneault, there was really only one movie for viewing on the flight across North America...